The efforts of new students from Nghe An to overcome difficulties.

New student, age 25

This year's admissions season, Nguyen Thi Tu Anh (born in 1998) is probably one of the oldest freshmen at Nghe An University of Economics.

Three years ago, Tu Anh was a former student of Le Viet Thuat High School. After graduating from high school, despite achieving a high score on the high school graduation exam, she put her dream of going to university on hold. The past three years have been a special time for her because, from a student with a difficult background and a disability, she has risen above her circumstances, self-taught herself to become a Chinese language teacher. Besides supporting her family, she saved up money to pay for university.

Tú Anh and her mother live in a small, single-story house near Bùi Thị Xuân Street, Trung Đô Ward, Vinh City, on land given to them by her maternal grandparents. The only access to the house is a narrow path, about 1 meter wide, just enough for two people to walk in and out. The house is very basic, with only one bedroom, a living room, and a small kitchen, all built with government assistance for extremely poor households.

Due to cramped living conditions, the living room also serves as the bedroom. On a makeshift mattress, Tú Anh sets up a small folding table to teach Chinese to her students. Because of the difficult circumstances, Tú Anh can only tutor a maximum of one or two students per session.

In the neighborhood where Tú Anh's family lives, everyone feels sorry for the four of them. Tú Anh has three sisters, and all three are disabled, suffering from the effects of Agent Orange exposure inherited from their maternal grandfather. Even Tú Anh's mother has been disabled since childhood, and is thin and frail.

A few years ago, when she was still healthy, she could still manage to ride her bicycle to the train station market every day to sell potatoes and cassava to earn a little extra money. But a few years ago, after an accident, she became very weak and could no longer go to the market. The lives of the mother and her children depend on the disability allowance, which is less than 2 million dong per month.

Ms. Hoa, Tu Anh's mother, also recounted that when she was born, her family knew she suffered from the effects of Agent Orange. However, because her father lost all his documents, she and her children were disadvantaged and did not receive any benefits. Her life was also full of hardships and difficulties. She married and had several children with her husband, but they didn't stay together for long. They separated, and the children almost lost contact with their father. Later, her parents gave them a small plot of land, and she and her children moved back to live with her maternal grandparents.

Due to difficult family circumstances, no one in Mrs. Hoa's family received a proper education. Her eldest daughter dropped out after the 9th grade to work as a factory worker in the South. The youngest also only completed primary school before quitting. The most eager to learn was Tu Anh, but due to illness and weakness from a young age, and the family's extreme poverty, she only started first grade at the age of 10. Recalling that memory, Tu Anh said: "I really wanted to go to school and was eager to attend. I remember on the first day of school, my mother promised to take me to school after she returned from the market with her goods. But I left for school by myself at over 5 a.m."

Going to school was Tú Anh's greatest happiness. Therefore, during her high school years, despite being older than her classmates and facing difficulties commuting, Tú Anh never missed a single day of school. She was also very optimistic, so even though she was many years behind her peers, Tú Anh never felt pessimistic. On the contrary, the more difficult and challenging things became, the more Tú Anh told herself she had to try harder, first to be able to take care of herself, and then to take care of her mother and younger sibling.

During her high school years, Tu Anh attended a 6-month course at a Chinese language center and obtained an HSK 5 certificate. Thanks to her relatively good Chinese language skills, the center later provided her with the opportunity to assist in teaching and tutoring some new students.

In her spare time, Tu Anh tutors at home. Previously, during her high school years, tutoring was a regular job for Tu Anh, teaching elementary and middle school students. In addition, she also helped some of her weaker classmates.

This female student said that her biggest dream was to attend a foreign language school to improve her Chinese language skills. However, due to family circumstances, she couldn't go to Hanoi to study, and there weren't any schools in Vinh offering this major. Therefore, Tu Anh chose Nghe An University of Economics, majoring in accounting, to fulfill her dream.

I think the next four years will be very difficult. But if we don't try, those four years will pass meaninglessly, and we'll have nothing. Instead of sitting around complaining, I want to stand on my own two feet, even if those feet aren't perfectly healthy."

Nguyen Thi Tu Anh - New student at Nghe An University of Economics.

Going to university can change your life.

Three years ago, when he first started 10th grade at Nghi Loc 5 High School, Nguyen Xuan Chien never imagined he would go to university. Chien's family lives in Hamlet 19, Nghi Van Commune, and has been classified as a poor household for many years. Chien's father left when his mother had just given birth to their second child.

For many years, Chiến's mother single-handedly farmed to raise the two brothers, earning less than 2 million VND per month. This meager amount barely covered daily living expenses, let alone enough to pay for Chiến's university education. "Before, I just thought that after graduating, I would work as a factory worker and earn money to help my mother and my brother," Chiến recounted.

Despite his difficult circumstances, Chien is very intelligent and hardworking. During his middle school years, Chien was repeatedly recognized as an outstanding student at the district level. In high school, leveraging his strengths, he was selected by his teachers to join the Math Olympiad team. In his senior year, Chien participated in the provincial-level Math Olympiad and brought home a third-place prize for his school.

This turning point helped Chien change his mindset. Chien's greatest aspiration now is not to become a factory worker or go abroad for labor, but to go to university, get a decent degree, and then find a stable job. During that difficult time, his homeroom teacher, Mr. Nguyen Van Ly, was the one who connected him with the "Lighting Up Hope" scholarship.

For the past 17 years, some people have advised my brother and me to finish high school and then go to work to help our mother; others have suggested that if we could study hard and get high scores, we should try to get into military schools to ease our mother's burden. But, even though I might be a little selfish, I truly want to pursue my strengths in the natural sciences, so I've always strived every day. The results I've achieved make me very happy, and it motivates me even more to study hard to escape poverty and provide a more comfortable life for my family."

Nguyen Xuan Chien wrote in his scholarship application, "Lighting up the flame of hope."

With years of consistently excellent academic results, a third-place award in the provincial mathematics competition for gifted students, and a relatively high score in the aptitude test, Chiến received notification of his acceptance into the Information Security program at the Posts and Telecommunications Institute of Technology even before the results of the high school graduation exam were announced.

While waiting for the scholarship application results, Chien traveled more than 20km to Vinh City every day to work as a waiter at a coffee shop. He tried his best to save his meager earnings to pay for his tuition.

After much effort, good news finally came to Chien when, at the end of July, he received the results confirming his application was approved and the annual "Lighting Up Hope" scholarship will help Chien cover all tuition fees and part of his living expenses for four years of study in Hanoi.

New students at the Posts and Telecommunications Institute also shared many dreams and aspirations, and promised to continue striving to graduate soon, find stable jobs, support their families, and help other classmates in similar circumstances to rise above adversity together.